New Delhi, May 15
Counting of votes polled in the nearly month-long Lok Sabha elections will begin tomorrow, even as political parties began searching for new friends and making up with foes fearing a fractured verdict.

A party or combine needs 272 seats in the 545-member Lok Sabha to form a government, but exit polls predicted a hung house though they gave the Congress-led UPA an edge over the BJP-steered NDA. However, both are expected to fall short of the magic number.

Predictably, parties trashed the psephologist's findings and held out their hands of friendship to those with potential to add numbers to their tally.

Counting would take place at 4,260 halls in 1,080 centres across the country and would be managed by nearly 60,000 personnel. A little over half of the 71.377 crore registered voters cast their ballots through EVMs in the elections that began on April 16 and ended on May 13.

In all, 8,070 candidates, including from 46 national and state parties, contested in the elections to 543 LS seats (two members are nominated from Anglo-Indian community). Votes polled in elections to state assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Sikkim would also be counted simultaneously.

Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla and Election Commissioners S Y Quraishi and V S Sampath reviewed the preparations for counting in all states and union territories through a video conference with the Chief Electoral Officers.

Chawla reviewed the arrangements on the basis of detailed checklist prepared by the commission and directed the CEOs to follow it strictly. He also reviewed the security arrangements for the EVMs.

The counting of votes polled in both Lok Sabha as well as assembly elections would start at 8 am tomorrow.

The commission has launched a special website www.eciresults.nic.in to make the results available instantly.

In addition to the trends and results being made available on the website, large display boards would be put up in front of the commission's headquarters - Nirvachan Sadan - in Delhi on the counting day for the benefit of the public.

"Counting personnel will arrive before 5 am and observers and other officials before 7 am. Counting will begin at 8 am and the process finished by 4 pm," West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Debashis Sen said today.

The commission has set up 117 counting centres in Punjab, 90 in Haryana and seven in Chandigarh, which were among the last to go to polls. — PTI